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Released by: Fox
Released on: 7/15/2008
Director: Masayuki Ochiai
Cast: Joshua Jackson, Rachel Taylor, Megumi Okina, David Denman
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
In 2004, Thai filmmakers Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom made an interesting supernatural horror film in their homeland called Shutter that dealt with the strange phenomena of spirit photography. Four years later and that film has been remade for an American audience, though for some strange reason the location has switched from Thailand to Tokyo and our protagonists are now a pair of Americans, newlyweds to be exact.
Benjamin Shaw (Joshua Jackson) is a professional photographer who, along with his new bride, Jane (Rachel Taylor), is living in Tokyo for a while thanks to the ins and outs of his business. On their way into the city they hit a strange woman in the middle of the road but when they get out to check on her they find no body, or even any blood. Soon enough, the pair get set up in a pretty swanky studio apartment and Joshua goes about taking pictures of various models for various photography shoots while Jane beings to notice that in almost all of the pictures that they take together, there are strange blurs on the picture.
Benjamin's assistant tells Jane that these might be spirits appearing in the pictures and she takes her to meet an ex-boyfriend who runs a magazine dealing with spirit photography. During her visit to the office, Jane notices an employee Photoshopping a picture to make it appear more eerie than it really is, but he tells her that despite this, spirit photography is a real phenomenon. The more Jane looks into things, the more she realizes that this might have something to do with the woman they hit a few nights ago but Joshua knows more than he's letting on…
While Shutter does fall into the 'long haired Asian ghost lady' trap that's made so many horror films from the east seem so cliché as of late, it at least tries something new with the material. Shifting the location from Thailand to Japan doesn't really do anything except justify the use of a Japanese director (Masayuki Ochiai, who also did The Hypnotist). That said, the film is well paced and if the bulk of the scares come from well placed jump scares rather than by building anything in the way of legitimate tension, at least they're timed well and pretty effective. The photographs that play a key role in the film have a certain creepy charm to them and will resonate with anyone who has ever seen anything unexpected pop up in a picture they've taken.
The score is creepy and hits all the right notes at all the right moments and the lead performances from Joshua Jackson and Rachel Taylor are fine. Shutter is a well made and moderately enjoyable thriller from start to finish - it's just that it's missing the originality, both culturally and stylistically, that made the film it's based on so effective.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The anamorphic widescreen transfer on this test disc is bugged with a logo and doesn't represent final product. As far as the quality of the test disc goes, colors look nice as do black levels but there are some compression artifacts throughout that will hopefully be a non-issue with a finished product.
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound on this DVD is excellent. The jump scares have some really nice punch to them and the film's score is nice and punchy. Bass response is strong and tight while dialogue stays clear throughout.
First up is a commentary track with production executive Alex Sundell, writer Luke Dawson, and actress Rachel Taylor. The three participants talk about the challenges of bringing their vision to the screen and how everyone did their best to make that happen (Joshua took Japanese lessons because his character had been to Japan before). They talk about the script, shooting in Japan, casting the film, and point out some odd little subtleties about the movie that you might not notice the first time around.
From there, check out a selection of featurettes starting with A Ghost In The Lens (8:14), which is a documentary that includes interviews with Joshua Jackson, Rachel Taylor and a few other cast members who discuss their roles and what they liked about the film. A Cultural Divide: Shooting In Japan (9:26) examines the intricacies of shooting the film in Japan by way of some interviews with the key cast and crew members. The Director: Masayuki Ochiai (9:34) allows the man behind the camera to talk about what attracted him to the project and to share a story or two of his own about spirit photography while A Conversation With Luke Dawson (5:32) is, as the title implies, a talk with writer about writing the film and what went into bringing the scares from the written page to the big screen. A History Of Spirit Photography (4:48) is an interesting and way too short supplement that explores the origins of the phenomenon while Create Your Own Phantom Photo (3:58) is a quick look at how photo imaging software can be used to make a regular photo a ghost photo.
Rounding out the extras are an Inside Look At Upcoming Projects From Fox (basically an ad for Mirrors), a couple of trailers, a list of tips and items to bring should you decide to go ghost hunting on your own, and a selection of eleven deleted scenes (one of which is an interesting alternate ending).
The Final Word:
Fairly generic compared to the original version, Shutter is never the less a decent time killer with a couple of interesting twists. The Americanized/Japanicized version lacks the character of the Thai film but as far as generic thrillers go, at least this one is entertaining enough.